DuPont never ramped up a greener production technique that the company licensed from UNC that might have reduced demand for chemicals like GenX years ago.

When scientist-entrepreneur Joseph DeSimone reads news about plastics-related industrial pollution from DuPont-built chemical plants in the Cape Fear River, or anywhere, he can’t help but envision what might have been.

Nearly 20 years ago, DuPont obtained an exclusive license for a DeSimone invention that used a greener process to produce the high-performance plastic Teflon®. Created at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, the recipe did not create wastewater tainted with any of the per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) now detected in the Cape Fear River.